T-Bone Burnett: Shut It Tight

Born in Missouri and raised in Fort Worth, T-Bone Burnett is best known today as a music producer and for his work with such film soundtracks as O Brother Where Art Thou? and Crazy Heart. But the protean 10-time Grammy winner is also a gifted songwriter and, in the Eighties, a prolific recording artist. His lyrics typically explore the challenges that modern life and technology impose on imperfect humans increasingly ill-equipped to deal with them. Burnett often turns to the redemptive themes of love and faith, although his writing has become increasingly pessimistic. Even so, Burnett holds on to the possibility of inherently broken people finding a measure of fulfillment by the simple act of turning to each other.

Burnett first came to my attention back in the mid-Seventies as rhythm guitarist for Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue. The unusual name stuck with me; when rummaging through the Austin Public Library's record collection a few years later, I came across his Truth Decay album and checked it out. The album immediately resonated with me, especially the lovely, hopeful ballad "Power of Love." He followed Truth Decay with the highly regarded EP Trap Door, then, in 1983, the full-length Proof Through the Night.

Proof garnered excellent reviews, but Burnett didn't like the production foisted on him by Warner Bros, which probably explains why it has never been released on CD. He reproduced the six songs from it that appear on the excellent Twenty Twenty retrospective, among them "Shut It Tight," the album's best song. "Shut It Tight" covers familiar Burnett territory with a deftness that blends a hard edge with sympathy and defiance. The juxtaposition of opposites ("I do the very things I hate to do") reveals a confused, sometimes inept man who "stumble[s] like a drunk along this crazy path I walk." In the end, no matter how imperfect he may be and no matter how bewildered by life, he's going to hold on because it's what he's given and perhaps because there's a certain dignity and satisfaction attained by fighting until and even after there's not a breath left to draw.

With "Shut It Tight," Burnett creates an everyman out of his own self-doubt and struggles, a figure with whom anyone who admits to his or her own humanity can identify. There's not a songwriter out there who hasn't attempted this at one time or another. That T-Bone Burnett succeeded demonstrates why he remains one of the best.

LYRICSI find it hard sometimes to say the way that I feelI do the very things I hate to doI act like a child and I'm afraid of what is realAnd so I try to cover up the truth

I stumble like a drunk along this crazy path I walkI have a hundred thousand questions tooI'll go to any length to prove that nothing is my faultThen later on I will deny the proof

I don't like to win but then again I hate to loseAnd in between is something I can't standI don't care what you think and I hope that you approveI am just an ordinary man

Sometimes I want to stop and crawl back into the wombAnd sometimes I cannot tell wrong from rightBut I ain't gonna quit until I'm laid in my tombAnd even then they better shut it tight

He tackles pretty complex themes. At one time, there was a patina of Christianity over them, but recently they seem to have become more pessimistic. It's odd to me that his worldview would darken even as he has achieved recognition and success.

I've seen T-Bone twice. The first time was over 20 years at Austin's old Soap Creek Saloon. There was pouring rain that night, and he was late getting in from Houston. His bamd was comprised of local musicians. He did a great rendition of "Gloria" that lasted for about twenty minutes.

It could well have been the Continental Club. Soap Creek and the Continental were down the street from one another on S. Congress for a time, so I could easily have mixed them up. My recollection is that the LeRoi Brothers were the band, so it must have been the same show.

The Brothers were good! They had an EP that I used to play over and over.

About Just A Song

After a hiatus, I want to revive Just A Song. My move east has exposed me to all kinds of new (to me) talent who have inspired me to take pen in hand. As always, all entries will include the name of the artist and song, the albums it appears on, miscellaneous notes, the lyrics, and an audio and/or video of the song. Some entries will also feature annotations and/or a brief essay about the song. I'll also include links to official web sites and reviews.